Scot Squad

Thurso Police Station gets Scot Squad prop

BBC Scotland comedy series Scot Squad responded to an SOS call from Thurso Police Station after they contacted programme makers about a picture prop featured in an episode.

Grado and Manjot Sumal have to hold down regular jobs

Grado and Manjot Sumal might be a hit as TV's comedy cops.. but both hold down regular jobs off set.

Scot Squad creator on how police helped script

Writer Joe Hullait, the man behind the BBC Scotland series, was collared by rozzers keen to give him the inside track on serving for the under-fire force.

I was worried that the second series of this spoof police show might introduce new characters but I'm glad to report that they haven't tampered with their brilliant cast. However, one change has been made, though it's for the best: the mockingly serious narration used to be jammed full of absolutely aggravating and annoying alliterations but this has been dropped. Otherwise, it's the same, I'm glad to report, as Series 1.

Two daft cops visit a posh house to deliver a summons and find a burglar at work, but he's determined to pretend he's the man of the house. It belongs to an Asian family so he insists his name is Jimbo Kumar. He's from the East, you see. The East End, ask the cops? Ah, no further East than that, he says. What, Fife?

But the best characters are Officer Karen and Boabby. Making the police accessible to the community means weary Officer Karen has to politely deal with his incessant visits to the station, even when he's just there to say, "Awrite, Officer Karen! Want a shot of ma stunt kite?" or to report that he's found a welly full of gloves.

Jordan Young admits: Life of crime is easy PC for me

River City star is swapping sides to dish out more cuff love as PC Jack McLaren in new series of spoof cop show.

Interview: Scot Squad's Darren Connell

As police mockumentary Scot Squad returns for a second series we talk to one of its stars about getting the acting bug and method nerves.

The heavy promotion of Scot Squad, the latest in the tradition of Rab C Nesbitt, Still Game, Chewin' the Fat and others, demonstrates BBC Scotland's belief that the only form of comedy which is appropriate for television is patronisingly coarse portrayals of the working and non-working class, an attitude doubtless fuelled by a self-congratu­latory sense of comradeship with the characters.

In so doing, the programme makers are producing what they would leap to condemn in others, namely, clichéd and distorted representations of Scottish life and culture from which they would loftily and fashionably recoil.

Scot Squad preview

Improvised TV comedy Scot Squad has a mix of trained and untrained actors mining a fertile seam of funny.

Jack Docherty interview

Scots comic Jack Docherty tells why No vote in independence could mean comeback for his most famous character McGlashan.

Cult wrestler Grado to appear in Scot Squad

You might not have heard of 25-year-old Graeme Stevely, from Stevenston. You probably haven't heard of his wrestling alter-ego Grado either yet... Later this year, he'll be in police mockumentary Scot Squad and also has a part in BBC comedy pilot The Sunny.